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The Ilyanica Trilogy tells the story of two friends, Ilyana and Erica, who met as college students studying in Berlin in 2005 when they are 20. Ilyana offers a last souvenir to Erica on the final day of their study abroad year, sparking a discussion of values and identity with their futures on the line. They meet up again ten years later in Austin, Texas in a drained out pool where Erica seeks to win Ilyana’s renewed companionship by showing her a film she made of an important incident in their lives. Finally, they meet in their 40s in an abandoned prison in Poland where Ilyana has become involved with a group of radicals occupying the site where the U.S. tortured people in the 2000s.

Written and Directed by Scott Cobb. All cinematography by Colemar Nichols.

Nicola Pérez did this drawing for my German short film. In the story one of the characters made it at age 5 and her mother kept it for many years on the refrigerator and then later on the fireplace mantel amongst family photos for 20 years. The mother had immigrated to the U.S. after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Now that child wants to emigrate in search of a better life outside the U.S.

Ilyana offers a last souvenir to Erica on the final day of their year junior year abroad, sparking a discussion of values and identity with their futures on the line.

Cinema on the Bayou Film Festival is committed to presenting nationally and internationally acclaimed narrative fiction, documentary, animated and experimental films and filmmakers with truly original voices.

The story follows a mother and her three daughters. The mother immigrated from the former East Germany sometime in the 1990s after the Berlin wall was opened, seduced by the image of the U.S. The two oldest daughters, who came as young children with their mom, now want to immigrate back to Germany, drawn to a culture they never got to experience growing up, one that recently welcomed more than a million refugees. The daughters feel estranged from what they perceive of the current U.S. cultural and political environment. While the mother grew up in a country that built a wall to keep people in, the daughters see that they now live in a country where the phrase “build the wall” is chanted at presidential campaign rallies. There is also a third daughter, who was born in the U.S. and is torn between her mother and her two sisters.

CASTING CHARACTER (almost all dialog will be in German)

Hannah, female, age 20-35. Any ethnicity. Speaks German fluently as her first language. Born in Germany, but brought by her mother to the U.S. as a young child. Now, as an adult, she has become disenchanted with life in the U.S. and wants to go back to Germany, causing a schism in her family. Hannah’s mother grew up in the former East Germany, which built a wall to keep people in. Now, Hannah is angry that she lives in a country where “Build the Wall” is chanted at rallies by the president of the U.S. Most dialog is in German, but Hannah switches to English sometimes when talking to her younger U.S. born sister.

Submission Instructions: Send email to brandonscottcobb@gmail.com. Describe your German language proficiency. Include “Hannah” in the subject line. Include a headshot and acting resume as attachments in the email, and a link to a reel if you have one.

KEY DATES

Shooting Date(s): March 28, 2020. We are planning a one day shoot, but we may schedule a second day on March 29. The shooting times will be 8 AM to 6 PM with a lunch break.

Rehearsal Dates: We would like to have at least one rehearsal before the shooting date.

I attended the screening Sunday May 19th of the UT-Austin RTF Undergraduate thesis production class. For the first time in the decades long history of RTF, there were more women than men directors in the thesis class. Congratulations to all the directors, crew and cast members of all the films. According to the printed program distributed at the screening, there were a total of 14 films created by 15 directors (one film had co-directors). 9 of the directors are women. 6 of the directors are men. Compare that to 2016, when 12 of the thesis films had men directors and 1 was directed by a woman. In 2017, it was 8 men and 3 women. In 2018, it was five and five. I started raising money for production grants a few years ago to support women and diverse directors in RTF. The grants given out since 2017 by Women In Cinema plus all the outreach and other activities they do have really had an impact! Thank you to major donors Kat Candler and the non-profit run by Michelle Voss, Moving Image Arts and Education!

Compare that to 2016, when 12 of the thesis films had men directors and 1 was directed by a woman. In 2017, it was 8 men and 3 women. In 2018, it was five and five.

The grants given out starting in 2017 by Women In Cinema plus all the outreach and other activities they do have really had an impact! Special thanks to major donors Kat Candler and Moving Image Arts & Education .

RTF seniors enrolled in the Production Thesis class, taught by Associate Professor Richard Lewis, will screen their films for the public on Sunday afternoon, May 19th. Beginning at noon at UT’s Hogg Memorial Auditorium, the event is free and open to the community.

Scott Cobb, a 2014 alumnus of the radio-television-film program at UT, said he could never afford a SXSW badge as a student, instead buying $15 entry tickets to see some of the films.

“My most memorable experience with SXSW when I was in college was walking through the crowded convention center wishing I could afford to get into a panel,” Cobb said. “They have so many great panelists each year on film-related topics, and I would have learned a lot, but I never got to attend, so all I learned was how exclusionary for-profit cultural festivals are.”

Students who want to purchase the discounted tickets have to apply through the SXSW website with proof of current school enrollment. This year, student ticket prices are $425 lower than the $800 price of the past.

According to the SXSW 2018 demographics, 6 percent of SXSW attendees came from households that make less than $25,000 a year, while 37 percent came from households making more than $150,000. One percent of attendees were younger than 21, and 6 percent were between the ages of 21 and 24.

A cultural festival such as SXSW that charges $1,650 for a platinum badge, $1,325 for a regular badge and currently almost $400 for a student badge has failed as an organization. The exorbitant SXSW prices are signs of a civilization in decline. They are emblems of a city where culture is reserved for the privileged, where low-income people are unwanted and purposefully excluded by prices only the affluent can afford.

SXSW is known as an “Austin Event”, yet students and low income non-students are not able to afford to attend. That says a lot about Austin and it makes me alternatively sad and angry. Only 6 percent of SXSW attendees come from households making less than $25,000, while 37 percent come from households making more than $150,000. The solution to increase diversity is to lower the badge price for anyone earning less than $25,000 to somewhere between free and $50. As a former film student, I can also add that SXSW should also waive all submission fees for short films and all application fees for bands. Get the corporations who are so visible at SXSW advertising this and that new product to cover the lost income from waiving the submission fees. The Cannes Film Festival does not charge filmmakers to submit short films. Austin needs to make affordable access to culture something that Austin is famous for.

Women in Cinema, a student organization at UT-Austin, has posted the grants application for this year’s Women in Cinema Spring 2019 Female-Directed Thesis Grant! If you are a woman in Radio-Television-Film at The University of Texas at Austin, you can apply for one of the grants if you’ll directing a film in the undergraduate thesis class in spring 2019.

From the application: “Thank you for your interest in this year’s grant application read more at Views For Cash website! We are seeking to support women directors through this grant program by providing funds for those in the undergraduate thesis class in spring 2018. We have $5000 to award. All female directors in the thesis class will receive some of these funds. This application can be completed by the director OR producer of the project. In order to be eligible for this grant, your project must be directed by a currently registered female student enrolled in the spring 2019 undergraduate production thesis class.

As applicants for the thesis class, you are to request the grant amount you want (any amount from $0-$1000). Awards will be contingent on the amount of applications and the availability of funds. This application is due (by email to austinwomenincinema@gmail.com) by 11:59PM CENTRAL TIME ON SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15.The grant winners will be contacted by the beginning of December. Please reach out to us if you have any questions!”

Last year Women in Cinema gave out more than $5,000. In 2016, WIC gave out more than $1,600 with funds raised through the Grants Initiative to Support Women and Diverse Filmmakers in RTF. The goal has been to increase the number of women directors making films in the thesis in RTF. In 2016, the undergraduate thesis class had 12 men directors and only one woman director. In 2017, the thesis class had only 3 women directors out of 11 total directors. In 2018, the class had an equal number of women and men directors, 5 and 5.